Nectar In A Sieve tells the tales of joy and tragedy from a first person's view, in a period of intense urban development in the country. A fictional story that foretells the life of Rukmani, daughter of a village headman and her lover, Nathan, a tenant farmer, to whom she gets married at the age of 12. An English doctor by the name of Kenny also plays a major role in the story as he rids her of her infertility issues, after which she bears five sons.

Rukmani and Nathan also have a problem with debt. They sell most of their possessions in order to clear the dues they owe to the landowner, only to be able to clear only half of the full amount.

On the year of their marriage, monsoon rains down on the fields and they lose their crops, their only means of livelihood, leaving them to rely on their savings and wages. The savings don't hold up for long and they soon run out of their resources, bringing them a step closer towards famine and death. It's a heart wrenching tale of joy and sorrow.

This book was published by Signet Classic in 1954 and is available in paperback.

Product description

About the Author

Kamala Markandaya is an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya is a graduate of Madras University. She has published several short stories in Indian newspapers.

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“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”

----Leo Tolstoy

Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, a.k.a, Kamala Markandaya, the late Indian internationally bestselling author, had penned a terrific yet extremely honest tale of a woman's struggling yet endearing life right after India's independence in her book, Nectar in a Sieve which marks as a pioneering book in Indian literature, that outlines the importance of a woman's simplicity, her sacrifices, her unconditional love for her family, her dying desires, her struggles during the times of poverty and her intelligence in rural India.

Synopsis:

This beautiful and eloquent story tells of a simple peasant woman in a primitive village in India whose whole life was a gallant and persistent battle to care for those she loved.

Married as a child bride to a tenant farmer she had never seen, she worked side by side in the field with her husband to wrest a living from land that was ravaged by droughts, monsoons, and insects. With remarkable fortitude and courage, she sought to meet changing times and fight poverty and disaster. She saw one of her infants die from starvation, her daughter become a prostitute, and her sons leave the land for jobs which she distrusted. And somehow, she survived...

Rukmani, a very young girl, is married off to a simple peasant, Nathan, from a village miles and miles away from the village where she was born, by her father, who is a reputed village headman. Rukmani who came from a modest and affluent lifestyle is expected to follow with her newly married husband to his village and into his simple world with limited means. Rukmani soon adjusts and adapts with her new lifestyle as a village farmer's wife, by helping her husband in sowing the rice seeds, watering and other necessary farming activities while handling and managing the household singlehandedly. Unfortunately as time passes by, Rukmani is left childless as she is expected to give birth to a handful of sons who will finally help in the farming business alongside with her husband. As a result, Rukmani consults a Western doctor, Kenny, with modern world ideals, who finally helps her to give birth to a daughter and four sons. Despite the increase of so many feeding mouths, Nathan and Rukmani somehow manages to feed their sons and daughter, give a fulfilling life, even they are challenged all the way with poverty, drought and flood, sacrifice their farm and fight lots of battles, and through out the whole journey, Rukmani stands tall and strong shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband until the very end.

There are so many stories that highlight an India's life right after the independence but only a few stand out, just like, Nectar in a Sieve is one such ground breaking classic Indian literature that brings out the basic and simple life of a farmer somewhere rural in South India. Centralizing poverty as the main theme of the book, the author had depicted the life of a village woman despite whose sadness knew no limit, she had a fulfilling and satisfying family life with limited happiness and extreme challenges all through out her way. The author has made her readers feel nostalgia through the pages of this compelling yet heart touching story of a woman as a little girl, as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother and as a friend as she survives her life alongside her husband and children.

The author has captured the backdrop of a post-Independent India strikingly as she gracefully painted the rough and brown yet dull landscape of an Indian village, lush with rice paddy fields and the blooming flora here and there, the dust from the red stone roads, the grayish river, the hard cracked soil, the mud huts, the narrow-minded and illiterate village folks, the superstitions, the child's cry, the staple food, and the sweat of the hard working villagers. Each and every details about the background image will let the readers to time travel back and forth from that era to the modern times and that will force them to reflect back on the changes. The author had also highlighted the socio political, cultural norms and beliefs followed back in that era which is in a stark contrast to present day's rules and beliefs.

The author's writing style is extremely significant rich with emotions and wisdom embedded deep into the core of the story line. The readers, be them international or Indian, will find the book easy to comprehend with even the story is written by the author is a very simple and easy to understand English language. The narrative is heartfelt and articulate and the readers will find losing themselves into the sad undertone of the character's voices. The pace if the book is swift and moderate even the story is rich with so many evocative descriptions that will help the readers to not only feel the story but also to visually imagine the scenes right before their eyes.

The characters reflect the hardships toiled by the Indian farmers and their family through their honest and realistic demeanor strikingly. The main character of Rukmani is pleasingly portrayed that the Indian readers can easily contemplated with her plain looks, not so sharp wit, an enduring and patient woman, a hard working mother, a loyal and devoted wife and an obedient daughter. Rukmani infers poignancy and sympathy through her painful journey of life in India, how motherhood and marital life changes the life of this once innocent and sweet little girl is equally heart breaking yet enlightening enough to keep the readers glued to the pages of this book till the very end. the supporting characters are well developed and extremely enriching enough to keep the readers interested about the way their life unfolds through the main story line.

In a nutshell, this is a must read Indian book that every Indian readers must not only possess in their bookshelves but must also possess in the very deep of their souls.

Stories with relavance to India have a greater impact on the mind of readers because of their ability to arouse empathy and stirring in the soul for the characters and the events. Nectar in a sieve is one such story set in the backdrop of rural india, an India that the present generation of middle aged Indians are quite familiar with, the majority having an umbulical chord connection with the rural India. Thus we are always moved with the events and the circumstance that unfold from page to page and emote similar to the way the characters in the novel do!

The expressions and the descriptions in the book are made more telling by the authoress, who weaves magic with her play or words. Under her command, the pen acts like a brush, painting a picture so vivid and lifelike that one is left enthralled and move from page to page like in a dream.

This is a book thats a must read for all those who love all things Indian and who adore writings of Indian authors like R K Narayan and Mulk raj anand and Ruskin Bond.

Kamala Markandaya is absolutely a brilliant story teller, Nectar in a sieve was setup in a pre-independence era, she makes envisage how people were looted in the zamindari system, and how a house wife takes effort to feed her family in the famine period which were frequent but still they never loose hope and over all its a sad story , but grips your attention from starting to the end.